Incidentally, before he became a test pilot he was a World War II ace.
RIP
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
I always thought of Hal Jordan as Chuck Yeager. I think it was likely intended by the creators.
The Mercury 7 were announced in April of 1959, and the first Silver Age Green Lantern Showcase was cover dated October of 1959. The idea of certain men having the "right stuff" was in the air at the time (see Tom Wolfe's book). The idea that in order to win the Cold War and the Space Race, we first needed to be worthy of winning them. Chuck Yeager was the "great one" who loomed large over that whole era -- he was the one that the Mercury 7 considered to be the greatest of them, ahead of them, and really conspicuously absent when it came time to choose the first astronauts. (He was 36 years old by then, and considered to be of a slightly earlier generation).
I also think the "Mercury 7" ideals excited the public, excited comic book creators, and sparked the spirit of the entire Silver Age of comics. Heroes. The Right Stuff. All that. And Chuck Yeager more than any one man embodied that ideal of just competent awesomeness, putting your life at risk in service of country.
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